Precision Farming / Satellite Farming (SSCM)

2. PRECISION FARMING
Past – Present - Future

3. About Precision Farming
• Precision agriculture (PA) also called Satellite farming (SF) OR Site specific crop management
(SSCM).
• Based on : observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops.
• Identifies critical factors where yield is limited by controllable factors and determines intrinsic
variability.
• Record variations in crop or soil properties within a field which forms the basis for taking
management decisions.

4. Why do we need Precision Farming
• Increased Land degradation.
• Depletion of Water resources.
• Reduced availability of labour.
• Better management of large scale crops.
• Socio economic need for enhanced productivity
• Minimum use of land, water and time.
• To reduce environment pollution due to use of fertilizers and chemicals.
• Alleviate poverty by enhancing quality of life and attaining food security.
• Need for a technology enabled revolution to convert 2/3rd
of the arable rain fed land for
greater productivity.

5. Challenges on Implementing PF
• Lack of technical knowledge and technological expertise.
• Small plots or clusters of land.
• Higher costs in fetching PF systems.
• Poor penetration to Internet availability.
• Illiteracy rate high in the country.

6. How is it done?
Remote and In-field Sensing
Satellite Imagery
Aerial Photography
Electrical Conductivity (EC)
In-field Infrared
Chlorophyll Meters
Crop Height Monitoring

7. Satellite Imagery
• Spectral imagery from satellite.
• Not available to every one due to legal regulations or protected
by law.
• Cost for purchasing the images from satellite service providers is
high.
• Not precise and real time data not available.
• Images will be shot at different times.
• Outdated images will be provided – real time capturing not
feasible.
• Distortion may happen due to clouds or other factors.
• Moving satellites from time to time and from place to place with
respect to requirements is not feasible.
• Targets cannot be locked for multiple locations using satellite.
• Data cannot be fetched as and when required by farmers.
• Cost of establishment and maintenance for regular is too high.

8. Photogammetry with UAV
• Real time geographic area modelling- terrain
can be modelled on a computer as such.
• Aerial surveying provides data related to:
Degradation / Erosion of soil
Extend of pollution
Data on growth / degradation of crops
• Deriving the geographic pattern in 2D/3D for
terrain analysis and planning.
• Simulated video generation from terrain analysis
for crop investigative purposes.
• Flood detection, crop cultivation and
management, accident recreation etc. can be
done.

9. • Comparatively lower cost with respect to satellite
imagery.
• Flight chart can be configured manually in
accordance with the needs.
• Anytime change in flight paths.
• Concentrating a particular area for any number
of time and for many hours/days possible.
• No limits or separate access fee required
compared to satellite feeds.
• No Govt. orders or sanctions required.
• Effective use of Artificial intelligence makes data
delivery in real time.
• Real time monitoring of data and maps.
• Generates Orthomosaic and 3D models for
extraction of data outputs.

10. SIFT Feature Extraction
• SIFT – Scale Invariant Feature Transform is an
algorithm to detect and describe local features in
images.
• It describes an object by taking points on it and then
use those characteristics to locate the object from a
group of moving objects.
• Used in :
Object recognition,
Robotic mapping,
Navigation,
Image stitching for mapping,
3D modelling,
Gesture recognition,
Video tracking,
Match moving etc.

11. • Image stitching – means combining
multiple photos with overlapping fields to
produce a panoramic HD/3D view.
• Applied in MEDICAL IMAGING.
• Video Tracking - Locating a moving
object and tracking its course using a
camera.

12. RANSAC Outlier Detection
• Estimates parameters of a mathematical model
from a set of observed data which contains a model
parameter.
• A model parameter will be established and the
result of aerial observation will be cross checked
with this model to find erroneous measurements or
incorrect hypothesis.

13. • Used to solve LDP(Location Determination
Problem) where the use is to determine the
points in space that project on to an image into
a set of landmarks with known locations.

14. AFFINE Transformation Technique
Affine transformation is used to correct for
geometric distortions or deformations that occur
with non-ideal camera angles.

15. GEMS & Multispectral Imaging
• State of the art air-
vehicle camera for
collecting visible and
near infrared imagery
for precision
agriculture

16. To bring a change ?
• Co-operative movement in agriculture.
• Co-operative markets.
• Farmer Clubs.
• Pilot projects.
• Intrinsic research and adaptation of technical knowhow from other countries.
• Government initiation and promotion for smart technology on field.
• On field training and trainers on pan country scene.
• Regulations in Rules and Acts. (Use of Drones and Satellite Imagery is prohibited)

17. Advantages
• Increase in productivity using frontier technologies without damaging the quality of land
and water
• Pan nation wide techno-green revolution as the need of the hour.